Just finished reading Order 66 by Karen Traviss and the short review – it’s the shebs!

This book should have been awesome but it’s not.

Traviss takes the ultimate clone command – Order 66 – and somehow turns the story into a long drawn out tale of how clones escape from the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).

Order 66 is a sideline – a plot twist in the end of the book instead of being the central theme. It’s just another order and the only Jedi that gets killed is….[WON’T DO THE SPOILER HERE..] well it’s the only Jedi you don’t want to die.

Most of the story doesn’t make sense it’s just one useless drawn out scene after another until the end when order 66 forces the change in the GAR command structure.

Traviss is all about the Mandalorians – that’s her thing and she’s good at that. If you just want to read about the Mando – ok you might like parts of this – but it’s missing so many vital plot connections and links. So very much of this book just makes no sense it makes you wonder if anyone actually editted this book before it made it to publishing.

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Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski is hard at work on a remake of the classic SciFi series Forbidden Planet.

Considered how Straczynski totally butchered Babylon 5 with the Lost Tales – I’m not sure this is a good thing. Maybe he’ll make Robbie the Robot into a human or something….

Released in 1956, Planet told the tale of an expedition sent from Earth to check on a colony of scientists on a far-off planet. They find two members, a man who has found alien technology that doubled his intellect, Dr. Morbius, and his daughter, both of whom have managed to survive an unseen monster roaming the planet.

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This is a show that has really grown on us. The basic idea is that a cop from 2008 is somehow sent back to 1973. Yaaah i know a little lame. But the acting and overall development of this show is really solid.

In this episode our hero Sam Tyler – meets his mother – but instead of telling her his name (which is the same as her 4 yr old son) he tells her that his name is…Luke Skywalker. He tells her it’s an ‘Indian Name’.

We don’t know why he’s in the past – maybe he’s supposed to fix stuff..but what is neat along the way is how Sam brings 2008 sensibilities to 1973. It doesn’t sound like it was really all that long ago but man was it really a different world.

I worship Colbert and humbly pledge my eternal fealty to his Nation. Tek Jansen #2 was a disappointment for us, but #3 isn’t quite as bad.

For one the Robotra story line is corny but in a fun kind of way.

Jansen is the MAN as he should be – not a total idiot (just a marginal one). Good fun for Colbert fans and a good read overall.

I wasn’t sure after issue #2 if I would continue buying Tek Jansen – but at this point I’m certain that I’ll see this through to the end. Only two more issue to go after all and I’d like to see Tek destroy all the Optiklons, get his own strike team and have an army of Robotra’s hanging from his feet.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Neonopolis developer Rohit Joshi say the defunct Star Trek: The Experience attraction at the Hilton is moving downtown…If it works it would be the biggest resurrection since Mr. Spock reanimated on planet Genesis — both for the Experience show and the troubled Neonopolis development

Though I’m thrilled that Star Trek is coming back to Vegas – Neonopolis isn’t the right place. It’s not on the strip and it’s not accessable by the Las Vegas Monorail (like the Hilton). Location is everything – especially in Vegas.

While I still personally might try and make the trek to a Star Trek Experience – i suspect that most convention goers to Vegas won’t – it’s just too hard to get downtown which is why Neonopolis to date has been a total bust.
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Star Wars The Old Republic is a Massively Multiplayer online game – hopefully better than Star Wars Galaxies – produced by none other than BioWare makers ofthe first (and best) KOTOR.

“Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is the most critically acclaimed Star Wars game in LucasArts history and a preeminent example of our company’s interactive storytelling heritage,” said Darrell Rodriguez, President of LucasArts in a statement. “For a long time, we’ve wanted to return to the franchise in a grand way, and we felt that the best setting for it was an online world that would allow millions of people to participate in the experience together. We knew that the developer capable of working with us to deliver an engrossing story with a fully-realized online world was BioWare.”

Star Wars: The Old Republic is set roughly 300 years after the events of Knights of the Old Republic, a timeframe that is completely unexplored in the lore. So no Zayne Carrick – but certainly there are some Sith and likely more than few Mandalories about. Players can choose to play as Jedi, Sith, or a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, defining their personal story and determining their path down the light or dark side of the Force.

No official word on actual release date – though we’d expect sometime in the next 90-120 days as it looks like the game is already well developed at this point.

ARe you excited!!!?? We sure are. Though Star Wars Galaxies sucks – that game was developed by Sony. Bioware is a different animal and we’re willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

!!WARNING!! Be careful when pre-ordering from Amazon.com. We pre-ordered the new Star Wars: Millenium Falcon book by James Luceno more than a month ago. At the time we got a pre-order price from Amazon of $17.16. Today (the day the book is officially released) Amazon has the price listed at $16.56. So yes Amazon cheated me out of $0.60.

To add further insult to injury – i had hoped that by pre-ordering i’d get the book when it came out. No such luck! The book shipping notification only came yesterday (oct 20th) meaning i’ll get the book many days after it first hits the bookshelf.

THAT SUCKS.

This is the last time we’re likely to pre-order a Star Wars book on Amazon. It’s bad enough they ripped us off by charging more for the pre-order. That’s not right.

Anyone else been frakked by Amazon on SciFi book pre-order?

***UPDATE OCT 24, 2008 *** AMAZON has refunded me the $0.60 and I even got the book – only two days after it hit the stands. Would have been better if it was the same day – esp considering i order this book several months in advance – but still much better than what the email i got from Amazon indicated when this post was first published. My faith in Amazon is (mostly) restored!

Lots of double and triple crossing going on in this episode. And where did Dr. Beckett come from? Last we saw him he was being sent back to Earth for testing and now he’s a regular again? when did that happen?

Also a few story continuity problems in this episode.

For one – all the balarans were round up by the Wraith in front of the gate – but we didn’t see them when Col Sheppard and crew came back to the gate fighting – where did the Balarans go?

For two – where did the balaran that pointed out Beckett go? we never saw him killed!

And lastly – though this is just a question – what about Todd and Michael? How do they play into the hothan plague at this point?

All told this was another solid episode that kept our eyes peeled on the screen from beginning till the end.

Getting the carrier pidgeons to find the dude based on his EMF signal also a neat idea…but wouldn’t it have just been easier to us a spy satellite or some other kind of radio antenna to identify where the sign could be?

The reappearance of Olivia’s beau, Agent John Scott (Mark Valley)is kind of neat. Is he just an echo in her mind?

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EW has an inside scoop on Star XI this month. Lots of pics and some interesting insight into J J Abrams maddness of a remake. He also gave away the plot in the interview

** SPOILER ALERT**

The EW interview confirms that the movie will be a time travel film. The USS Kelvin is attacked by the Eric Bana character Nero which sets off a series events that shakes up time. Along the way the film goes into the origins of the classic Enterprise crew with a key focus on James Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto).

Time travel is great but how many time travel Star Trek movies do we need? Star Trek IV was time travel (to save the whales). Star Trek First Contact was time travel too….wouldn’t it have been more fun to have a mirror universe movie??

By going the time travel route – Abrams is showing his lack on imagination. There are so many other great things that SciFi can do from a plot point of view – time travel is a dated and far too well worn plot tool.
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The Bad Place Supernatural, Season 13 Supernatural Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy Price: $2.99 Release Date: December 7, 2017 Desperate to prove to Sam and Dean that he is good and that he can control his powers, Jack enlists the help of a dreamwalker named Kaia (guest star YADIRA GUEVARA-PRIP) to help him find Mary Winchester and save her from the alternate un […]

The Scorpion and the Frog Supernatural, Season 13 Supernatural Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy Price: $2.99 Release Date: November 30, 2017 Feeling as if they are running out of options, Sam and Dean agree to steal a mysterious trunk belonging to a demon named Barthamus (guest star DAVID CUBITT) in exchange for a locator spell the Winchesters can use to track do […]

The Rising Son Supernatural, Season 13 Supernatural Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy Price: $2.99 Release Date: October 19, 2017 Sam and Dean begin to explore what Jack is capable of doing with his powers. An unexpected visit from Donatello (guest star KEITH SZARABAJKA) alerts the boys to the fact that Jack will need more protection than the Winchesters can provi […]